Godwin, Earl of Wessex

Godwin, Earl of Wessex (993-15 April 1053) was Earl of Wessex from 1019 to 1053 (preceding Harold Godwinson) and Earl of Kent from 1020 to 1053 (preceding Leofwine Godwinson). He was a powerful magnate at the English court during the first half of the 11th century, becoming the richest man in England and becoming the father-in-law of King Edward the Confessor. Godwin headed a powerful faction at Edward's court and occasionally challenged royal authority, and, thirteen years after Godwin's death in 1053, his son Harold succeeded the childless Edward as King of England.

Biography
Godwin was the son of the Sussex thegn Wulfnoth Cild, and he served King Aethelred the Unready's household before being granted an estate in Compton, Sussex in 1014. After Canute seized the throne in 1016, Godwin enjoyed a meteoric rise, becoming Earl of Wessex in 1019 and Earl of Kent in 1020. From 1019 to 1023, he accompanied Canute on an expedition to Denmark. In 1035, following Canute's death, he aided Harold Harefoot with his rise to power as King of England, having Alfred Aetheling blinded and murdered and having Alfred's retainers blinded, maimed, executed, and scalped. On Harold's death in 1040, Godwin supported his brother Harthacanute with his rise to the kingship, and, in 1042, he supported the rise of Aethelred's last son Edward the Confessor to the throne.

Godwin became increasingly powerful when his daughter Edith of Wessex was wedded to King Edward in 1045,and he became the richest man in England and he head of a powerful faction at court, opposing the pro-Norman faction. In 1051, after King Edward slighted Godwin by appointing the Norman Robert of Jumieges as the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Godwin began to plot against him, having his son Tostig Godwinson marry the daughter of Count Baldwin IV of Flanders. King Edward responded by having Godwin and his sons exiled that same year, and, in 1052, Godwin returned to England with a strong army and forced Edward to pardon him. Robert of Jumieges was them deposed and replaced by Godwin's favored candidate, Stigand. On Easter Monday of 1053, Godwin suffered a stroke while eating with the King and died three days later. His son Harold Godwinson succeeded him.